Parents need wake-up call over children’s seatbelts, says RSA chairwoman

In a back-to-school appeal, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has urged parents to make sure their children wear seat-belts in cars, as its research has shown one in 10 children in the back seat don’t use proper restraints.

“This is very worrying especially when you consider that the most dangerous thing a child does each day is travel as a passenger in a car,” said Liz O’Donnell, chairperson of the Road Safety Authority, at the launch of its back-to-school road safety campaign on Thursday.

“I think parents need a wake-up call, and now is the opportunity. We’re going back to school, about 80,000 children are starting school, and they have to be properly restrained in cars [by seat belts or child car-seats] .”

The research from the RSA, conducted last year, found that while overall the level of children wearing seatbelts had improved from 88 per cent in 2016 to 93 per cent in 2017, children in the backseats of vehicles had only a 89 per cent compliance rate.

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An Garda Síochána Assistant Commissioner David Sheahan of the National Roads Policing Unit said the consequences of not using proper vehicle restraints are seen in the aftermath of collisions where serious injuries are sustained.

He added, “If you sit in your car now, it bleeps, and it won’t go off until you wear your seatbelt in the front of the car. I would love to see [such a thing] in the backs of cars, because that will force everyone to wear a seatbelt.”

For the eighth year in a row, the RSA and ESB Networks will distribute free high visibility vests to every child starting school in September.